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☆ 8 more of our stocks report earnings next week. Here's what we want to see
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

The three major averages posted gains for the fourth week in row, lifted by strong quarterly earnings results for most of the Big Tech companies and a strong jobs report. A weaker ADP Employment report on Wednesday provided no read-through to the monster January jobs report Friday. Here's what we're keeping an eye on in the coming week: 1. Earnings: It's another big earnings week head for the portfolio, with 8 more of our companies reporting. Consistency is what we appreciate most from nat gas giant Linde , so we're hoping for another quarter of solid earnings growth Tuesday.

Persons: Estee Lauder, Eli Lilly, Mounjaro, Nelson Peltz, Estée Lauder, Tyson, CARR, Jacobs, Willis Towers Watson, Edwards, Walt Disney, Oscar Health, Philip Morris, Armour, BAX, BILL, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, George Frey Organizations: Big Tech, Dow Jones Industrial, Nasdaq, PMI, Apple, Starbucks, Procter, Gamble, GE Healthcare, DuPont, Linde, Ford, General Motors, Trian Partners, Disney, ESPN, Wynn Resorts, Wynn, Vegas, Prix, Estée Lauder Companies, Caterpillar, McDonalds Corp, Allegiant Travel, Bowlero Corp, Tyson Foods, TSN, Air Products & Chemicals, IDEXX Laboratories, CNA Financial Corp, CNA, Timken Company, Graham Corporation, Mesa Laboratories, Sphere Entertainment, Loews Corp, Technologies, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Semiconductors, Simon Property Group, Amkor Technology, FMC Corporation, FMC, BellRing Brands, Crown Holdings, ChampionX Corporation, Golub Capital BDC, Flexsteel Industries, Kilroy Realty Corp, Gladstone Capital Corp, Unibanco, S.A, Snack Foods Corp, Kimball Electronics, Skyline Corp, Cabot Corporation, Simpson Manufacturing Co, Varonis Systems, Co, GE HealthCare, Linde plc, LIN, Spotify Technology S.A, BP, Hertz Global Holdings, AeroSystems Holdings, Toyota Motor Corp, Cummins, CMI, Software Technologies, AGCO Corporation, Carrier Global Corporation, Lear Corp, CONSOL Energy, Centene Corporation, Gartner, Arcbest Corp, CTS Corporation, Energizer Holdings, Hamilton Lane Incorporated, KKR, Precision Drilling Corporation, Frontier Group Holdings, Waters Corp, Alfa Laval, Aramark Holdings Corp, FirstService Corporation, Garden Sports Corp, New Jersey Resources Corp, nVent Electric plc, PJT Partners, Resources, Sensata Technologies, Ford Motor Company, Enphase Energy, Grill, VF Corp, Edwards Lifesciences Corp, Gilead Sciences, Lumen Technologies, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, Weatherford International plc, Amcor plc, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Advanced Energy Industries, Uber Technologies, CVS Health, Roblox Corporation, Ares Capital Corp, Bunge, XPO Logistics, Scotts Miracle, Gro Company, Berry Global, Flex LNG, Equinor ASA, Griffon Corporation, OneMain Holdings, Brookfield Asset Management, Emerson Electric Co, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Reynolds Consumer Products, Silicon Laboratories, Brands, Sciences, CDW Corp, Fox Corporation, WYNN, PayPal, Arm Holdings plc, ARM, Axcelis Technologies, Mattel, Paycom, Annaly Capital Management, McKesson Corp, Health Corporation, O'Reilly Automotive, Allstate Corp, Fluence Energy, Power Systems, Digital Turbine, Blue Bird Corp, Everest Group, Omega HealthCare, Coty, COTY, ConocoPhillips, Cameco Corp, Philip Morris International, Spirit Airlines, Hershey Company, Lightspeed Commerce, Aurora Cannabis, Lincoln National Corp, P, Tenet Healthcare Corp, Asbury Automotive Group, Arrow Electronics, Baxter International, PetMed, Boyd Gaming Corp, FirstEnergy Corp, Motorola Solutions, Terex Corp, PepsiCo, Growth, AMC Networks, Owl, American Pipeline, TELUS International, Magna International, Newell Brands, Jim Cramer's Charitable, CNBC, Bloomberg, Getty Locations: U.S, China, Macau, Wynn Macau, Valvoline, VVV, ALFVY, Madison, New Jersey, Gilead, Ceridian, ORLY, Paycor, Aurora, Provo , Utah

☆ A simple, low-cost protection trade for those doubting this bull market
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Michael Khouw | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

For an agonizing month, the S & P 500 toyed with the prior all-time highs of January 2022 before finally breaking through to new all-time highs on Friday. Yet here we are, reviewing the biggest trading day of the year so far, and AMD was the best-performing stock in the S & P. Nvidia was 12th. What is true is that the S & P 500 rises over time. Market Cap weighted indices, such as the S & P 500 represent the largest and generally most successful publicly traded companies. Notice that a January 2025 SPDR S & P 500 Trust (SPY) $460 strike put costs just over $16 per contract.

Persons: bender, Stocks, SPDR Organizations: AMD, Nvidia, Healthcare, Centene Corp, United Health, Enphase Energy, SEC, Investors, Apple, Microsoft, U.S . Locations: China, U.S

☆ These 5 Club stocks have defied the S&P 500's recent slide
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | In Kevinstankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

September has been unkind to stocks – living up to its historical reputation as the weakest month for the S & P 500 . Still, some Club stocks have been able to buck the downward trend since the start of the month — and none more so than Humana (HUM). The health insurer advanced 7.3% through Friday's close, putting it among the top-10 performing stocks in the S & P 500 over that stretch. In a year largely characterized by outperformance in technology stocks, health care has been one of the worst S & P 500 sectors . The stock entered Monday's session down more than 11% in 2023, the third-worst of any Club stock.

Persons: Jim Cramer, Jim, Centene, Molina, it's, Ford's outperformance, –, Shawn Fain, Ford, Honeywell's outperformance, Vimal, Morgan Stanley, Kupar, Darius Adamczyk, Jim Cramer's Organizations: Federal Reserve, Treasury, CVS Health, Molina Healthcare, McKesson Corp, Humana, Costco Wholesale, Ford, Costco, Club, Detroit, General Motors, Chrysler, United Auto Workers, GM, UAW, Reuters, Honeywell International, Meta, Street Journal, Morgan, CNBC, New York Stock Exchange, View Press, Getty Locations: Friday's, Kupar, New York

Benefit consultants from Mercer, Aon (AON.N) and Willis Towers Watson (WTW.O) see employer healthcare costs jumping 5.4% to 8.5% in 2024 due to medical inflation, soaring demand for costly weight-loss drugs and wider availability of high-priced gene therapies. Benefit consultants help design insurance plans for medium and large employers. About two-thirds of U.S. workers receive benefits through such plans.Insurers UnitedHealth (UNH.N), Centene (CNC.N), Cigna (CI.N) and Elevance (ELV.N), which manage employer insurance plans, declined to comment for this story. Of its projected 8.5% increase in employer healthcare costs for next year, Aon anticipates 1 percentage point coming from weight-loss drugs alone. Gene therapy treatment of just one employee could significantly raise costs for a company, consultants said.

Persons: Srdjan, Willis Towers Watson, Mercer, Marsh McLennan, Beth Umland, Aon, Novo's Ozempic, Eli Lilly's, Janet Faircloth, Jodi Picoult's, Khushi Mandowara, Leroy Leo, Caroline Humer, Bill Berkrot Organizations: U.S, REUTERS, Reuters Graphics, Novo, Reuters, Employers, Thomson Locations: Ljubljana, Mercer, Aon, United States, Bengaluru

Companies Centene Corp FollowJuly 28 (Reuters) - Centene Corp (CNC.N) said on Friday it was working to enroll people back into government-backed Medicaid plans after the end of pandemic-relief measures left hundreds of thousands of members without coverage. Medicaid memberships, the largest contributor to Centene's revenue, were hit by the removal of pandemic-related relief measures on April 1 that rendered several members ineligible for insurance coverage. Centene lost a little more than 260,000 Medicaid members in the second quarter due to redetermination, and had around 16 million members under Medicaid as of June 30. The company on Friday, however, beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit, helped by strong membership growth in its commercial marketplace business even as a fall in Medicaid memberships hurt. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $2.10 per share in the second quarter, above estimates of $2.03.

Persons: Centene, Sarah London, Julie Utterback, Mariam Sunny, Leroy Leo, Shinjini Ganguli, Shounak Organizations: Centene, Wall, Medicaid, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo/File PhotoJune 14 (Reuters) - Health insurer stocks dropped sharply on Wednesday after UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N) said costs were on the rise for the largest U.S. healthcare provider by market value due to an increase in surgeries among older adults. Shares of industry bellwether UnitedHealth fell 7.3% to $455.11, wiping out roughly $42 billion from the company's market capitalization in the current trading session. Meanwhile, stocks of medical device makers and hospital operators rose, as increased frequency of surgeries mean more revenue for them. The company highlighted strong demand for hip and knee procedures at outpatient centers, as well as for home health services and behavioral services. Elevance Health (ELV.N), CVS Health Corp (CVS.N), Centene Corp (CNC.N) and Cigna Group (CI.N) fell between 6% and 7.5%.

Persons: Mike Blake, bellwether, UnitedHealth, Jefferies, Brian Tanquilut, Zimmer Biomet, Leroy Leo, Bhanvi, Manas Mishra, Shinjini Organizations: REUTERS, UnitedHealth, Medicare, Humana Inc, Reuters Graphics, Elevance, CVS Health Corp, Centene Corp, Cigna, Elevance Health Inc, CVS, Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare, Stryker, Thomson Locations: Santa Ana , California, U.S, Bengaluru

☆ Centene to divest AI platform Apixio
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 3 (Reuters) - Centene Corp (CNC.N) will sell its artificial intelligence-powered healthcare analytics platform Apixio to investment firm New Mountain Capital as part of an ongoing portfolio review, the U.S. health insurer said on Wednesday. The company, which acquired Apixio in December 2020, did not disclose the terms of the transaction. Apixio compiles and analyzes large volumes of unstructured patient data, including medical charts and physician's notes, into insights and curated data. "As part of our ongoing portfolio review, it was important for us to find a strategic partner for Apixio with whom the business can continue to grow," said Centene Chief Executive Office Sarah London said in a statement. Centene said it expects the sale of the platform to be neutral to its adjusted profit for this year.

April 26 (Reuters) - Humana Inc (HUM.N) raised its annual adjusted profit forecast on Wednesday after lower medical costs in the firm's government-backed health insurance business helped it beat profit estimates for the first quarter. Some analysts stressed on increased investor scrutiny into whether certain one-time items were helping lower medical costs artificially. Humana CFO Susan Diamond said the insurer saw favorable cost trends in the quarter even as hospitals reported a recovery in procedures. On an adjusted basis, Humana expects annual profit per share of at least $28.25, compared with its previous forecast of at least $28. For the first quarter, it reported adjusted profit of $9.38 per share, beating estimates of $9.27.

☆ Factbox: Which CVS rivals also own primary care services
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Here is a list of some big companies that are also providing medical services or have announced similar deals:UnitedHealth Group IncUnitedHealth's (UNH.N) Optum Health business provides services that range from primary care to specialty care such as cardiology and oncology. UnitedHealth last year also announced a deal to buy LHC Group (LHCG.O), which provides healthcare services at home, for about $5.4 billion. Walgreens Boots AlliancePharmacy chain Walgreens (WBA.O) in 2021 took a majority stake in primary care provider VillageMD, which has nearly 400 clinics in the United States including 200 co-located with Walgreens retails stores, as of the end of 2022. VillageMD completed the acquisition of urgent care provider Summit Health in a deal valued at $9 billion. Amazon.com IncAmazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) agreed to buy primary care provider One Medical for $3.49 billion in July to expand its virtual healthcare and add brick-and-mortar doctors' offices.

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Centene Corp (CNC.N) on Tuesday said profit at its fast-growing Medicare Advantage (MA) business will take a beating in 2024 due to a sharp cut in its rating by a U.S. federal agency and likely lower-than-expected government payouts to health insurers. Centene does not expect its MA business to grow next year and it will likely "shrink a little", Chief Financial Officer Andrew Asher said in a post-earnings conference call. Asher said the company expects negative profit margins in the business in 2024 temporarily, after CMS cut star rating for Centene's MA plans in October. MA plans are government-supported insurance plans that private companies offer people over 65 years of age. Revenue from Centene's Medicare health insurance business rose about 24% to $5.45 billion from a year earlier.

☆ Centene profit beats on easing medical costs, Medicare boost
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Health insurer Centene Corp (CNC.N) beat fourth-quarter profit estimates by a small margin on Tuesday, helped by easing medical costs and steady demand for its government-backed Medicare health insurance business. Most health insurers saw their costs fluctuate during the pandemic, but have benefited in recent quarters from declining COVID-related hospitalizations. Larger rival UnitedHealth (UNH.N) recently said medical costs were more predictable with the world in the third year of COVID-19. Medicaid program helps cover medical costs for some people with limited income and resources. Revenue from Centene's Medicare health insurance business rose about 24% to $5.45 billion from a year earlier.

☆ CVS names new pharmacy services, consumer product chiefs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 23 (Reuters) - CVS Health Corp (CVS.N) said on Monday that David Joyner would return to head the U.S. diversified healthcare company's pharmacy services and tapped former Cigna Corp (CI.N) executive Amy Bricker as its chief product officer for consumer business. Joyner will become the chief of the pharmacy services segment, which also includes the company's pharmacy benefits management business Caremark, effective Jan. 30. Bricker will start in the newly created role in February after serving as president of Express Scripts, rival Cigna Corp's pharmacy benefits unit. Its largest health insurance plan for Medicare recipients received a lower performance rating from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in October. The lower rating could affect payments from the government for 2024, the company said.

☆ Five Missouri inmates escaped from jail through plumbing pipes, authorities say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Uwa Ede-Osifo | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Five inmates escaped from St. Francois County Detention Center in Farmington, Missouri, on Tuesday night, authorities said in a statement posted to Facebook. They subsequently made their way to the ground, St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Gregory Armstrong said. The group was last seen on camera driving southbound, according to the sheriff's department officials. All of the inmates were being held on felony warrants and three of the inmates — Tucker, Sebastian and McSean — are known sex offenders, authorities said. Authorities said that if members of the public spot the fugitives, they should not approach and they should call 9-1-1.

☆ Nearly 16 million Americans sign up for 2023 Obamacare plans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] U.S. President-elect Joe Biden adjusts his face mask after during a news conference, where he discussed health care and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare, at the theater serving as his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., November 10, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstJan 11 (Reuters) - Nearly 16 million Americans have so far signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act's marketplace, a 13% jump from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday. Enrollment for 2023 healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is open between Nov. 1 and Jan. 15. About 3.1 million people who have signed up for the plans are new enrollees, HHS said. Obamacare helps low and middle-income Americans who do not have access to affordable health insurance coverage through an employer.

☆ Around 5.5 mln people have signed up for 2023 Obamacare plans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

People who want to choose a healthcare plan for 2023 under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, can enroll between Nov. 1 and Jan. 15. However, if they want to be covered as of Jan. 1 they generally need to choose a plan by Dec. 15. Around 1.2 million of the people who have signed up for the plans are new consumers, HHS said. In late November HHS said that nearly 3.4 million people had signed up for health plans. Companies that provide these plans include UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N), CVS Health (CVS.N), Centene Corp (CNC.N), and Elevance (ELV.N).

At Fortune 100 companies, only 12 chief executives were women as of July 15, the same number as a year earlier, according to Heidrick. The Heidrick & Struggles also report showed 86 CEOs in the group were white, down slightly from 88 in the prior period. "If you want to accelerate the rate of the change in the C-suite, then it (diversity) has to be embedded in the succession plan," Taylor said. In a separate survey, Heidrick found record levels of board seats filled by first-time directors at 43%. Nearly half of the appointees last year were women, while 41% were racially or ethnically diverse, similar to rates in 2020.

☆ Court records show law firm Brown Rudnick was hacked in 2020 and its insurance paid a $2 million ransom
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The law firm's cyber insurer paid a ransom and wants to hold a tech vendor liable for $2.4 million. The law firm was one of several breached, including Goodwin Procter and Jones Day. The law firm Brown Rudnick paid criminal hackers $2 million in 2020 so they wouldn't publish confidential records online, and its insurer is still trying to recoup the money it spent responding to the attack, Insider has discovered. The software company paid out millions of dollars to settle with people and businesses impacted by the hack. Brown Rudnick’s name was included in a technical alert that was pasted into the lawsuit by its insurance company.

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